Chapter 36 Chapter Thirty-Two

The village bell rang, the bluish-white bell rang hesitantly, swaying in the bright sunlight. This was the second day after Sima Lanniang was rescued. Director Lu of the commune was picked up by a jeep without windows. Director Lu said that he would leave after finishing the terraced fields in each village, but Director Lu left for some reason. .Director Lu left, and the labor force in each village was disbanded like landslides and landslides. Whether it was the end of the terraced fields, half of the soil scales, or half of the houses collapsed, it all happened after Director Lu left. After that, he pulled the car, carried the luggage, and left Sanxing Village talking and laughing.They left the village, as if they had finished their hard labor, and walked up the beam road to the villagers of the three surnames without even bothering to turn their heads.

In a blink of an eye, the village of Sanxing was quiet again, like after a heavy rain, except for the changes in the land, the people in the village are still the same people, the pigs are still the same pigs, the dogs are the same dogs, even the bumps on the village streets All are still the same.When the villagers watched the strangers disappear on the beams, they heard the sound of the sun shining in the silence of the village, and saw those with throat problems coming out of their homes to bask in the sun, waiting patiently for the end of their lives.They sit in front of their own doors, leading their own children who are running under their feet, or spread a few reed mats in front of them, on which the scouring grains are spread, and they just stand there, yelling at chickens and birds, as if He guards a business stall on the street, selling his own life span.The yelling of the scalper, like muddy water that doesn't flow, is slowly surging in the alley.The dogs stood in daylight for a while, then wandered among the wheat fields and terraced fields.In broad daylight, there were mice staring in the middle of the street, looking here and there, and then casually dropped by.At this moment, the bell rang.Lan Baisui stood at the door of his house, watching the last batch of outsiders walk up the beam path for a long time. When the sound of footsteps, wheels, and voices became less and less like falling leaves, he slowly reached the center of the village.He went to the headquarters where Director Lu lived, and saw that the door was locked. When he wanted to lie on the window to look in, he was stunned for a moment and found that Sima Taohua was also lying on the window and looking in.

"What did you see?" "Director Lu's quilt and dental jar are still in the room." "Sister Taohua," he squatted down, lit a pot of cigarettes, and tried to ask, "Is there any way to make Director Lu stay and let people from other villages dig the land for our village again?" She glanced at him and said, "You are the village chief, ask me what I do." He stiffened the cigarette holder on his lips, saying that I am the village chief, but what can I do?Say you are familiar with Director Lu, if you can keep Director Lu, you can ask me, the village head, to kowtow to you, and it is okay to ask me to call you sister or aunt in reverse.Then he stuffed the smoke pot with fire and smoke into his purse, and looked at Sima Taohua eagerly.When Sima Taohua was about to leave, he stood up from the ground, hurriedly blocked the door of the hospital, and begged, "Sister Taohua, if you don't think of a way to keep Director Lu for me, no one in the village will do it." You will regard me as the village head, and no one will listen to me to dig the land for soil. You try to keep Director Lu for me, and if you keep Director Lu, you will leave the labor from the other country. Can you do it?

Sima Taohua glanced at him half-coldly. He said: "If you keep Director Lu, if there are other cadres in the village, I will let Du Bo be in charge." She said, "I can't keep Director Lu here." He said: "You are the only one in the village who can think of a way." She said: "Brother Baisui, get out of the way, I'm still busy going home." He said, "Sister Peach Blossom, do you have to let me kneel down?" She said: "You let me go, the pigs at home haven't been fed, and the sheep haven't been penned yet." He really knelt down for her, and with a bang, there was no sound in the courtyard.He knelt there, with his hands hanging by his sides, his head raised high and looking up at Sima Sima Peach Blossom, his face was sallow and sick, and he said like a beggar who is very hungry and relies on others to give him a bite of food, Sister, Sima Lanniang is your natal sister-in-law. I kneel down for you so that she can eat new food as soon as possible. If you don't try to keep Director Lu, I will kneel at the door and die today. If you want to go, jump over my head.

So, Sima Taohua stared at him contemptuously, put his eyes aside, and said, Brother Baisui, you are still a man, how many times do you have to kneel down throughout the year?It's not worth a lot of money to kneel there. Come to think of it, I really have to go home to feed the pigs. It's not like you don't know what director Lu likes. If you want to keep Mr. Lu, you have to choose the best in the village. Wouldn't it be enough for the yellow flower girl to go to be enshrined?Saying this, Sima Taohua turned his eyes away from where, and sure enough, he jumped and squeezed from Lan Baisui's right, and went out to go home.

Lan Baisui stood up from the ground, as if bored by a woman spitting phlegm on his face, he slapped himself on the face with his hand, bent over to pat the ashes on his knees, and stared blankly at the white spot above his head for a while. , step by step, walked towards the three upper rooms that used to be the headquarters, and looked into the room while lying on the window sill where Sima Taohua had been lying. In the bed, like a long stone slab, Director Lu's pillow is big and long, there is still room for two people, and there are two toothbrushes in the tooth jar on the bedside table.Ten years ago, when Lan Baisui was led by Sima Xiaoxiao to sell skins in the county, he had seen people in the city brush their teeth, but he didn't know why Director Lu of the commune used two toothbrushes by himself.He walked over from the window sill, thought for a while in the yard, and then rang the bell softly and loudly.

A village meeting was held. The meeting was held in the courtyard of the command headquarters. Except for Sima Lanniang who was still lying on the bed weakly, adults and children from every household came, and a courtyard was densely packed with people.Some sat on their own stools, others sat on stones or on thresholds.The villagers were the first to arrive at the headquarters courtyard and saw Sima Lan returning to the courtyard smoking a cigarette alone after ringing the bell. The last person to come to the courtyard still saw him squatting by the windows of the three rooms smoking a cigarette. Smoked, he was like the head sheep of an old and weak flock, it seemed that he no longer had the ability to lead the flock up mountains and cliffs, he didn't know where to lead the flock, and he seemed like the big and small sheep in the flock But no one respected him anymore, and no longer let him lead him to run away in the wilderness.People sat quietly in the yard, and when the bell rang, they came, as if the purpose of coming was to say that the meeting was over and everyone should go home--that said, but he didn't wait until the villagers, men, women, and children They were all here, and they were all sitting or standing without moving. He was still smoking under the window, smoking like hell, the sky was cloudy and foggy, until the sun faded away, and the smoking pot under the shade of the tree was as red as red. A piece of burning iron in a blacksmith's furnace.

Because he was silent for a long time, the chaotic meeting place became quieter, and it was so quiet that the sound of the sun moving and the clouds moving, and the breathing of people was like a bull wheel rolling on a beam. Time suffocates the villagers like a cage. Du Zhu stood up from the venue—— "Village chief, the villagers are all here, it's time for a meeting." He smoked another pot of cigarettes. Lan Liugen stood up from the crowd—— "Uncle, do you want to have a meeting or not? If not, I will leave." He knocked out the cigarette ash, but after knocking, he dug the cigarette pot into the cigarette pack.

Finally, someone walked up with a stool, muttering, saying that this is also called the village head, and he wants to lead people to dig up the land and exchange land, so that people can live past forty, as long as they don't let people suffocate to death.When one person left, several women who wanted to cook got up to leave, and the meeting place became chaotic. Finally, Lan Baisui rolled up his cigarette and walked slowly to the middle of the venue. Those who were walking stopped. He said: "Let's have a meeting, I have something to discuss with everyone." They all sat down again, and the chaotic meeting place was like a pool of still water, and even the children stopped running sporadically.However, people fell silent and all focused their eyes on Lan Baisui standing in the middle of the courtyard, but he opened his mouth and didn't say a word. He squatted down limply and kicked his head as if he had been stretched by someone. He hooked it in his arms and put his hands on his head, as if he was afraid that someone would hit him.There was an elder brother of the same family who was one year older than Lanwa. He walked over and kicked him on the butt, saying that it’s fine if you can’t be the village chief, and you can’t fart. You let the villagers come What kind of meeting are you having?He was kicked, but without turning his head, he suddenly picked up his hands and slapped his face again, crackling, loud and gray slaps like raindrops, as if he had done something to shame the villagers , How can I feel sorry for the villagers, as if slapping myself is also a weapon made by him, Lan Baisui. In the most difficult time, he had to take out this last weapon.

In any case, he was a man, the head of the village, and more importantly, his age belonged to the elders of the villagers. He slapped himself inexplicably like this, and made a meeting place bewildered.The sun was bright and bright, the sound of his slap was crisp and white, and the red smell of blood falling from his face filled a courtyard in a blink of an eye.The villagers didn't know what happened and what the meeting was for. After a long and boundless shock, someone grabbed his hands, and his daughter-in-law and several daughters were in a hurry, making noise. , Men and women asked anxiously, and he choked out a sentence: "I asked everyone to come to the meeting, I'm sorry for the villagers, my family's ancestral grave should be scraped!"

People were dumbfounded and asked what was the reason. He opened his mouth again, and when he was about to speak, he slapped his ear with all his might, then squatted on the ground again, with his head hooked in his arms, and his hands on his head, as if someone was If you ask him what to say, he won't say anything.I won't talk anymore, and I never said that the meeting was dismissed and everyone went home.At this moment, Sima Lan came out from nowhere, as if he had been hiding somewhere for a long time, as soon as he came out, he burst into light in front of everyone, and said loudly: "Village chief, he can't say it, he can't say it. Just speak for him." The meeting place became quiet again, and the villagers all cast their eyes on Sima Lan, and suddenly they all realized that he was standing there, as straight and tall as a tree, smiling with his father Sima who died that year. He was about the same height, and he also saw that the beard on his lips was already black and hard, so he suddenly understood that he had grown into an adult through and through, and he had grown into a somewhat frightening adult. Sima Lan stood beside Lan Baisui. He didn't look at Sima Lan, nor did he look at any villager. He put his eyes on the heads of the people in the meeting place: "The village chief rang the bell for the meeting today, just to turn over land and exchange land. The matter of the soil is to keep Director Lu and the laborers from other villages." Sima Lan said loudly, looked down at Lan Baisui, and said, "Is that what you mean? The village chief." But he didn't When Lan Baisui said yes or no, regardless of Lan Baisui looking at him with surprised eyes, as if he was already the village head, as if he was the one who called the villagers to the meeting, he continued The past said: "How can Director Lu be kept? How can labor from other villages be kept? There is only one way, which is to select a few young girls from the village to serve Director Lu of the commune, and let Director Lu take away the real The labor force from Shangcun came back to turn over half of our land.” Speaking of this, Sima Lan stopped talking, as if he had finished speaking, looked at Lan Baisui and asked what he meant, then strode back into the crowd and sat on the long strip carried by his aunt Sima Taohua behind the crowd. on the stool. The Du people followed Sima Lan's eyes until Sima Lan sat down, and then turned their eyes back to Lan Baisui's body. Lan Baisui slowly stood up from the ground. Standing up, Lan Baisui seemed to have passed a threshold that he would not be able to cross unless others helped him. He fell half-bent and half-straight on the venue, looked at the villagers with guilt and guilt, and said that what Lan Haiwa said was true. To be honest, why does Director Lu lead hundreds of thousands of laborers to work for us for nothing?What else can we do to entertain other people in our old nest in the deep mountains besides the girl with yellow flowers?Those who have shared a shop are not uncommon, and those who have not shared a shop and made an appointment with me, as an uncle or uncle, I can't damage the girl's body and break the boy's heart.He said that he had counted it several times. After the age of fifteen or six, there were eight people in the village who were not engaged. They were counted from the east of the village. Wucao and Sanjiu, the seventh daughter of our family.When it came to the third and ninth of the seventh daughter, Lan Baisui wanted to count down Sima's surname, but a purple-black cry flew from behind him, hitting it like a stone—— "Girl's father, you must die!" The villagers followed the shout and saw Sanjiu, the seventh daughter of Lanbai, staring blankly at her father, and her mother stood up from the crowd like a locust tree. Lan Baisui turned his head, and before he could say anything else, someone Leng Ding'er behind him took off his shoes and threw them on the back of his head through the crowd, yelling that Lan Baisui, Sima and our Du No one was as ruthless as you when you were the head of the village, who dared to exhaust the living on the hillside by digging up the land for soil——I love you, today you have a meeting for a long time, the tortoise bastard does not talk, and the arguing for a long time is straightforward It's really going to let the girl of Huanghua go to serve others again.When this person called out, another person followed. Immediately, several pairs of shoes flew over his head, hitting Lan Baisui on the head, face and shoulders.Lan Baisui's face was immediately covered with dust, and the sound of talking and scolding was splashed towards him.He kept his eyes open first, and said that I was doing it for my Lan Baisui family?I have lived for a village for over forty years, until I am seventy and eighty miles away.Later, the woman surnamed Du named Xinghua suddenly jumped up and spit on his face, saying that Lan Baisui, I am thirty-seven, and I have had a throat blockage for four months. Months to live, you are bullying my orphan, mother and widow before I die.After following, those mothers and fathers who were counted as girls of the right age by Lan Baisui swarmed up like a swarm, spit, pointed at their noses and scolded, and some people stretched their arms over the shoulders of those women and slapped them On his face, he scolded you pig, you dog, you look thin and honest, but in fact you are black-hearted and rotten, you will die badly, if you can't make it through tonight, you will get throat blockage and die of illness in May and June In the hot summer, even the dead bodies were full of maggots, and the dogs went to dig out the bones after they were buried underground.Lan Baisui squatted down again, this time he didn't hook his head, didn't hold his head, his neck was straight and straight, he let the soles of his shoes be hit on his head and spit on his face, as if the important thing was that he said what he should say Having said that, he is worthy of the villagers, and he is worthy of the village chief. But slapping and swearing, swearing and slapping, the sound of beating and cursing is as quiet as after a shower. Someone called: "Forget it, forget it, the village chief is also doing it for the good of the village." Someone else shouted: "Didn't the village head count his seven daughters in?" Said: "Then let his Sanjiu serve others!" They all called out: "That's right, let Sanjiu serve others!" The crowd dispersed. He started to walk outside the courtyard. At the village meeting, from the moment everyone arrived, Lan Baisui began to speak, to the time when all the villagers moved their stools and left the courtyard of the command headquarters, they only had to eat bowls of hot rice.In the time it takes to eat a bowl of rice, Sanxing Village has gone through an upheaval. When the villagers gathered, they stretched the time as long as the rope, and when they left, the trees fell as fast as they left. , and returned to tranquility.The courtyard is empty, and the sound of crows flying over the sky can be heard.Lan Baisui seemed to think of the situation like this, but he didn't expect that when he was insulted by a woman and hit by a man just now, no one came up to persuade him. He thought that I, Lan Baisui, was for me?I am for you all the villagers.He was a little gray and sad, and he was wronged.When the villagers had left, he smelled blood from his nose staining his hands blackly.Wiping the blood from his hand on the upper of the shoe, the tears fell soundlessly into his arms. He watched tears smash the ashes in front of him into two holes, glanced at the window of the house where Director Lu lived, and when he wanted to get up to leave, he saw there were still people in the yard.One to the east, one to the west, sitting or standing, all shaped by silent messages.He saw Sima Taohua standing in the front.On the bench on one side of Sima Taohua, her daughters Zhucui and Sima Lan sat, and on the other side stood under the tree the next generation Lan Liugen, Lan Yanggen, Du Zhu and Sima Lan's fifth younger brother Sima Lu.Standing at the very entrance of the gate were his daughters Lan Forty, Lan Liushi and Lan Bashi.He was a little moved, touched that they were still here with him.He looked up at the villagers and wanted to stand up, but before he could straighten up, he squatted down again.Sadness suddenly overwhelmed him, so he simply amplified his grief and began to cry.His crying voice was like a flowing river, buzzing and turbid for a while, and gurgling and clear for a while. The whole village lived to be over 40 years old, and I wanted to live a long life for the whole village.Said that from now on I will never mention plowing land for soil again, if I die, I will die, and it is not because our Lan family died early.When he was crying like this, Sima Taohua came to persuade him first, followed by his daughter and the villagers surrounded him, and when he was persuaded emotionally and rationally, his crying became more and more disturbing in the surrounding persuasion. Even at this moment, the sun was still so bright, and the village was still so quiet, Lan Shishi, who had been standing at the door without moving, came and said a word. Since then, that sentence has changed many things from what they were before. She said, "Father, don't cry, I will serve Director Lu." These words hit the faces and ears of the villagers like hot red iron. Lan Baisui's crying stopped abruptly, and the remaining villagers all turned their heads away. Lan Shishi stood there calmly, looking at his father Lan Baisui with harmless eyes. Lan Baisui said: "The sixth..." Lan Shishi said, "Father, you really don't need to cry, I'll just serve you." Lan Baisui said, "You were engaged to Lan Haiwa before." Lan Shishi said: "When the matter is over, it's my fate for Brother Lan to marry me. I don't blame him if he doesn't marry me." All eyes turned to the back, slowly and heavily, like turning a millstone on the village street, they all turned their eyes on Sima Lan's body. Sima Lan had already stood up from that bench. He looked at the villagers, at Lan Shishi, and said without delay, "Forty, you just need to ask Director Lu to bring the people over, turn over the land in the village, and let My mother and the villagers all eat food from Xintu at the end of the year. Don’t say that you are serving Director Lu, I will marry you whoever you serve.After saying this, Sima Lan stared at Forty, at her flushed face and moist eyes.At this moment, Lan Shishi also looked at Sima Lan, her eyes lit up as if opening a door, but in the blink of an eye, those eyes dimmed again, and she saw Zhu Cui stepping forward to grab Sima Lan's hand, Speaking of cousin, you said that if you want to marry me, you can't be a big man without talking.Sima Lan didn't turn his head to look at Zhu Cui, he pulled Zhu Cui away by his hand, as if to make Shi Shi believe in himself, staring at Lan Shi Shi eagerly said, I am in front of so many people, By the end of this year, Director Lu wants to let everyone in the village eat new food and let the whole village live past the age of forty. If I really don’t want to marry you, can I die suddenly the day before I turn forty? At this moment, Lan Shishi knelt down and kowtowed to Sima Lan.After kowtowing, she remained silent, turned around and walked out of the gate, her steps fluttering, as if she was about to fall.In the long days to come, the villagers will never forget what she said and her weakness in walking, as if they will always remember that no one lived beyond forty years old in this uprooting.